Jun 5, 2012 | Laboratory Hiring & Human Resources, Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Sales and Marketing
More consolidation in the clinical laboratory and pathology testing industry
It was announced yesterday that MEDTOX Scientific, Inc. (NASDAQ:MTOX), of New Brighton, Minnesota, will be acquired by Laboratory Corporation of America (NYSE:LH) of Burlington, North Carolina. The purchase price is approximately $241 million and represents a 37% premium over Medtox’s closing price of $19.70 on Friday, June 1.
Significantly, LabCorp’s purchase of MEDTOX removes one more independent laboratory company from the market. This continues the trend of medical laboratory consolidation that has marked the lab testing industry for the past 25 years. (more…)
Apr 12, 2012 | Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Management & Operations
Many challenges ahead for Rusckowski because of healthcare’s unfolding transformation
Yesterday, after the stock markets closed, Quest Diagnostics Incorporated (NYSE: DGX) issued a press release naming Stephen H. Rusckowski as its new President and CEO. He will assume his duties on May 1, 2012. Quest Diagnostics is the nation’s largest clinical laboratory company.
Along with the appointment of its new President and CEO, Quest Diagnostics also announced that Daniel C. Stanzione, Ph.D., would become the Non-Executive Chairman of the Board for the Madison, New Jersey-based company. Stanzione has served as a Director on the Quest Board since 2004.
To ensure an orderly transition, Surya N. Mohapatra, Ph.D., the current Chairman, President, and CEO, will continue his duties through April 30, 2012. It was on October 25, 2011, when Quest Diagnostics disclosed a succession plan and stated that Mohapatra, now 61 years old, would serve for an additional six months as the company conducted its search for another CEO.
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Nov 14, 2011 | Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Sales and Marketing
Two Senate committees seem interested in how certain medical laboratories offer discounted laboratory test prices to selected health insurers
Is it a coincidence that discounted medical laboratory test pricing offered by the nation’s two largest clinical laboratory companies appears to now be the subject of interest for the Senate Judiciary and Senate Finance Committees? Last Tuesday, Senator Max Baucus (D-Montana) and Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) issued a press release titled “Grassley, Baucus Scrutinize Practice by Health Insurers and Testing Labs.”
Baucus is Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and Grassley is the Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Together, these two Senators sent letters last week to two clinical laboratory companies and three big health insurance firms: (more…)
Oct 12, 2011 | Laboratory News, Uncategorized
Deal may be just the first of more clinical laboratory acquisitions in the U.S by Japan’s largest medical lab testing company
Pathology and clinical laboratory testing companies continue to go global and last week’s big acquisition in anatomic pathology gave one of Japan’s biggest clinical laboratory companies an important foothold in the United States.
Miraca Holdings Inc. (TYO: 4544.T) of Tokyo, Japan, announced that it would acquire the anatomic pathology business of Caris Life Sciences, Inc., of Irving, Texas. Miraca says the purchase is the first ever by a Japanese company of a clinical laboratory testing company in the United States.
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Sep 30, 2011 | Laboratory Pathology, Management & Operations
Medical laboratories and pathology groups lose access to tissue specimens when office-based physicians operate their own in-clinic pathology laboratory
One trend reshaping the profession of anatomic pathology with surprising speed is the growth of in-clinic pathology laboratories by specialist physicians. As each office-based physician group builds its own in-clinic pathology laboratory, local pathology groups and medical laboratories lose access to the tissue specimens these doctors now process in their own pathology lab.
This trend has significant consequences for the nation’s 3,300 pathology group practices, as well as those national pathology and clinical laboratory companies that compete for the biopsy tissue referrals of office-based physicians. Losing access to the tissue referrals of local physicians makes it tougher for local pathologists to develop a broad range of experience and skills.
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